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Chap. Copyright No.. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE INDWELLING GOD 



The Deeper Life Series* 

Handsomely printed and daintily bound. 
Illustrated. 

Price, 2j cents each, postpaid. 



WELL-BUILT. 

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. 

ANSWERED! 

Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D., 
Rev. R. A. Torrey, D.D., Rev. C. 
H. Yatman, Rev. Edgar E. David- 
son, and Thomas E. Murphy. 

THE INDWELLING GOD. 

Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, D. D. 

LITTLE SERMONS FOR ONE. 
Amos R. Wells. 

A FENCE OF TRUST. {Poems.) 
Mrs. Mary F. Butts. 



United Society of Christian Endeavor* 

Boston and Chicago. 





'BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. 

FROM A PAINTING BY CARL SCHONHERR. 



The Indwelling God 



For Power 
For Character 
For Service 



Charles Albert Dickinson, D. D. 



' There is a secret chamber in each mind, 

Which none can find 
But He who made it, — none beside can know 
Its joy or woe." 















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Colonial Press : 
Electrotyped and Printer 
C. H. Simonds &= Co. 
Boston, U.S. A. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 



find copy 
1898. 



TO 

MY LIFELONG FRIEND 

AND BELOVED BROTHER IN CHRIST 

iFrancis 3E^ Clatfe, 10. ©. 

THROUGH WHOM GOD HAS WORKED MIGHTILY 

FOR THE UPBUILDING OF THE CHURCHES AND 

THE BETTERMENT OF THE WORLD 

I AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME 



PREFACE. 

THREE modest blossoms of heartsease I give 
thee, my reader, plucked from the hastily tilled 
flower border of a busy pastorate. They have been 
grown among the dust and din of the great city, and 
they lack the freshness and beauty of flowers that 
grow in quiet gardens. But they have sprung from 
a personal experience which has been greatly 
deepened and enriched of late through God's good 
grace ; and I send them forth with the hope that even 
their faint fragrance may suggest the blessedness of 
the life that is hid with Christ in God, and with the 
prayer that before they wither they may remind some 
seeker after truth of the fadeless joys which he may 
find who walks with the Master in the King's gar- 
dens. 

Berkeley Temple^ Boston^ Mass, 



CONTENTS 



PART PAGE 

I. For Power 13 

II. For Character 35 

III. For Service 53 



Part 1. 
FOR POWER 



THE FATHER ALMIGHTY. 

" In him we live and move, and have our being." 

" T T E is the author of all life. In this sense he 
A A is not merely our Father as Christians, but 
the Father of mankind ; and not merely the Father 
of mankind, but the Father of creation; and in 
this way the sublime language of the prophet may 
be taken as true literally. ' The morning stars sung 
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' 
The deeps, the fountains, the rills, all unite in one 
hymn of praise, one everlasting hallelujah to God 
the Father, the Author of their being." 

^' Within thy circling power I stand ; 
On every side I find thy hand ; 
Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, 
I am surrounded still with God." 



THE INDWELLING GOD. 




FOR POWER. 

The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. 
— Ps. 68: 35- 

^O WER belongeth unto God," says David, 
and no one had a larger sense of the 
power of God than did he. He saw 
God in everything. All the forces and 
laws of nature were only expressions of the divine 
omnipotence. As he stood out under the star- 
sprinkled dome of night, and with rapt soul gazed 
upon the swinging constellations, he said, reverently, 
"It is God's handiwork." As he stood upon the 
seashore and saw the reluctant and angry waters 
churned into foam, and made to roll and break into 
mighty waves upon the beach, by the relentless hand 
of the storm spirit, he exclaimed, " The Lord on high 
is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than 
the mighty waves of the sea." 

13 



14 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

As he saw the storm-wrack, leaden and ominous, 
lifting its flashing and thunderous expanse above 
the horizon, and casting its chill shadow across the 
fields, which seemed to cower and shrink in antici- 
pation of the tempest, he said, ** Thou art the God 
that doest wonders. The voice of thy thunder was 
in the heaven ; the lightnings lightened the world ; 
the earth trembled and shook.'' 

And as he witnessed the returning spring coming 
with gay apparel and smiling face from the ice dun- 
geons of the winter ; as he saw the fountains bursting 
their ice shackles, and start off with a song down the 
gorges of the Judean hills, and the trees, from some 
mysterious force from within, weave for themselves 
garments of softest green, and the grass thrusting 
its millions of spearlets up through the sere brown 
carpet of the earth, he exclaims, " He sendeth the 
springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. 
The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars 
of Lebanon which he hath planted. He causeth 
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the 
service of man.'* 

All was of God, and from God. He was the con- 
trolling spirit among the stars, and in the affairs of 
men; the God of nature and of nations. "By ter- 
rible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O 
God of our salvation, who art the confidence of all 
the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off 



FOR POWER. 15 

upon the sea, which stilleth the noise of the seas, 
and the tumult of the people." 

And yet, says David, God gives of his strength 
and power to his people. There is a vital connection 
between omnipotence and finite weakness, whereby 
the latter can be so changed that it will have not a 
few of the characteristics, and not a little of the 
powers, of the former. 

There is little Benjamin, for example, the smallest 
and the weakest of the tribes, and there are the 
princes of Judah and Zebulun and Naphtali, — all 
human, all weak. Yet God commanded their strength. 
He made them great. It is he who can rebuke the 
company of spearmen. He can scatter the people 
who delight in war. 

" Ascribe ye strength unto God. His excellency 
is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. O 
God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places ; the 
God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power 
unto his people. Blessed be God." 

Power belongeth unto God. God giveth power 
unto man. Here in a nutshell is the summary of 
the world's history. 

Man in the world is like Aladdin before his good 
genius. By complying with certain conditions he 
becomes possessed of marvellous powers, and can 
command vast treasures. He is like a man in a 
good man's storehouse, having the keys to many 



1 6 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

Storerooms in his hands, and permission to help 
himself to the stores. It is as though some arch- 
angel, having been intrusted with all the riches and 
forces of nature, had made for himself a vast and 
magnificent citadel, furnished with all sorts of com- 
partments, where under lock and key were placed 
the secret springs which control the world's destiny. 
Here in one great room is the massed wealth of the 
world's Klondikes; here the garnered and sifted 
knowledge of the world's libraries ; here room after 
room containing the delicately adjusted machinery 
which controls the mysterious forces of nature ; and 
here, man in the midst of all, delegated and em- 
powered by the master of the citadel to open every 
door, and make use of every treasure, and manipu- 
late every piece of machinery. 

This is man as David saw him, only a little lower 
than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor, 
made to have dominion over creation, and with all 
things under his feet. This is man as Christ saw 
him when he said, "Ask, and it shall be given 
you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you." And this is man as Paul saw 
him when he said, " All things are yours." 

This is a truth which astounds our small faith, 
and makes most of us like paralyzed gold-seekers in 
the midst of boundless but unappropriated treasures. 
We do not believe our senses. We say. It cannot 



FOR POWER. 17 

be true. It is one of the old doctrines of our faith, 
but dressed in the language of modern thought it 
has appeared to many as quite a new discovery. 

God is the centre and source of all power. He is 
the fountain of all life and activity, the dynamo 
which supplies the universe with energy. Nature 
in its manifoldness of form and force is but the 
varied expression of his omnipotence. 

Different parts of material nature become chan- 
nels and instruments of this omnipotence in varying 
degrees, according to their constitution and condi- 
tions. God, as an omnipotent life force, for exam- 
ple, gives strength and power to certain combinations 
of inert matter, called germs and seeds, as they lie 
amid the dull clods of earth, and forthwith they 
spring up in multitudinous beauty in trees and grass 
and flowers. 

God, as the omnipotent mechanical force, gives 
strength and power to every atom of material dust in 
his universe, and forthwith the stars with balanced 
attractions, called gravitation, swing into their orbits, 
and move in paths so clearly defined and regular 
that their position in space can be foretold a thou- 
sand years hence, and every object on this earth of 
ours becomes so related to the earth's centre, and so 
drawn to it, that the divine strength and power thus 
operating through it become known as an established 
and unvarying law. 



1 8 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

And again, God, as an omnipotent electrical or 
magnetic force, gives strength and power to certain 
forms of matter, or to matter under certain condi- 
tions, and forthwith we have the aurora borealis, the 
thunder-storm, the cyclone, the magnetic compass, 
the telegraph, the telephone, and the electric lights. 

And so in a thousand other ways God is filling 
his creation with varied life and energy by impart- 
ing of his own power to the things which he has 
made and fitted for its reception and use. This 
power divine, this omnipotent energy, is like an at- 
mosphere enveloping all created things. You can- 
not tell whence it comes or whither it goes. It presses 
around all things and upholds all things, and all that 
is needed is for a person or a thing to be under 
certain conditions to receive it and to be energized 
by it. The seed, because it contains the proper con- 
ditions of embryotic life, receives into itself the all- 
encompassing power as a life force, and becomes a 
growing tree or plant, such as a pebble or a piece of 
coal cannot become. 

The rain-drops, because they have conformed to 
certain conditions, and reached a certain density, 
yield to the force of gravitation and fall to the earth, 
while the clouds from which they fell must remain 
floating above the earth so long as they are uncon- 
densed. 

The iron wire and the copper wire, because they 



FOR POWER. 19 

are metal, receive and transmit the omnipotent power 
which we call the electrical current, while the glass 
rod, because it is not rightly conditioned, is useless 
as a transmitter. 

Everything depends upon the conditions of recep- 
tivity. God is everywhere. God's power is every- 
where waiting to be used. It is used in a thousand 
ways. It is constantly finding the conditions under 
which it can manifest itself ; and yet it is safe to say 
that as yet, even on this our globe, which is but a bit 
of star-dust among the heavenly worlds, we have not 
yet witnessed a tithe of the power which God is 
ready and willing to manifest through the things 
and the people which he has created here. As a 
world and as a race we are yet in the childhood of 
our experiences of the power of God. We have not 
yet found our working adjustments with him. We 
are groping ignorantly and blindly after the harmo- 
nious conditions under which we shall become the 
free channel and the facile instrument of the power 
divine, — after that universal atonement, or at-one- 
ment, whereby all things sensate and insensate shall 
be reconciled to God, and made to work in delight- 
ful accord with him ; the conditions which Paul had 
in mind when he said, *' The earnest expectation of 
the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons 
of God ; " that is, for the manifestation of the 
strength and the power of God through those who 



20 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

are his children. " For," he says, " we know that 
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 
together until now." All creation, even the physical 
world, through many birth pangs occasioned by its 
slow evolutions from chaos to order, and the tardy 
development of those conditions which are essential 
to make it the perfect instrument of the divine 
power, has been groaning in expectancy, waiting 
eagerly for the time when even its unfertile deserts 
shall blossom as the rose, its lions shall lie down 
with its lambs, and all of its crude conditions shall 
be so perfected that the divine power may be 
manifested through them in the interests of a re- 
deemed race, with the least friction and the least 
suffering. 

This millennial realization of the power of God 
has its special and striking prophecies in the won- 
derful discoveries and developments of the present 
century. Never was there a century which has made 
more direct connections with omnipotence, in a 
physical and material way, than this nineteenth cen- 
tury has made. 

Just think what physical energy was lying dor- 
mant in the earth and sea and air a hundred years 
ago, which was not even dreamed of by the genera- 
tion of that time. God was all around them, waiting 
to bear their speech and their commerce on wings 
fleeter than those of the wind, waiting to open to 



FOR POWER, 21 

them vast stores of treasures, and they knew it not. 
They plodded over rough roads in bungling stage- 
coaches, when they might have been borne in 
plush comfort on steel rails. They waited long for 
momentous tidings which might have been trans- 
mitted in the fraction of a second. They lived and 
died in ignorance of the great world, while, had they 
but connected with the powers of God which their 
children appropriated, that world might have been 
laid open before them every morning. 

It only took a few men who were a little more 
thoughtful and patient, and who had a little more 
faith in the unseen than their fellows, to discover and 
apply the physical powers of God, so as to change 
this world of the nineteenth century so completely 
that our grandfathers of the old century would 
hardly know it. One man, Thomas Edison, has 
revolutionized the whole world by his marvellous in- 
ventions. That is, God gave to him strength and 
power, just as he gave them to Bezaleel of old, by 
giving to him an understanding of the conditions 
under which the divine power acts. This discovery 
and understanding of conditions makes the inventor. 
Edison making his eighteen hundred experiments 
before he discovered the proper substance for the 
incandescent light, and his six or seven thousand 
experiments before he solved the problem of prepar- 
ing the products of his great iron mills for the blast- 



22 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

furnace, is the most striking example in history of a 
man waiting consciously or unconsciously for the 
revelation of the secret of God, and for that endue- 
ment of power which was to give him control of a 
vast physical realm. 

Thomas Edison, standing as the central figure 
in that new town of Edison, N. J., watching that gigan- 
tic steam-shovel as, with ravenous jaws and spiteful 
puffs and snorts, it eats its way into the bowels of the 
iron mountain, surrounded with those Titanic crush- 
ers which make nothing of reducing bowlders of ten 
tons to powder, and with those magnets which gather 
the iron from the dust by the car-load, and with 
those engines which act like intelligent beings as they 
carry on the wonderful process from the time that the 
ore is snatched from its native bed to the time when 
it is reduced to briquettes of pure iron and sent to 
the blast-furnace — Edison, standing in the midst of 
all these marvels, in the white light of the electric 
lamps, and within calling distance of the whole com- 
mercial world as it stands at the other end of his tele- 
phone, is the century's conspicuous illustration of 
how God gives material power to those who rightly 
seek it. 

Not long ago, the town of Edison was a rocky, 
useless wilderness. Its hills were too rugged for 
cultivation, and not rich enough in ore to warrant the 
usual processes of reduction; but a man of faith 



FOR POWER. 23 

came there ; and lo, the mountains are being re- 
moved and cast into the midst of the furnace. Bar- 
ren and rugged though the place was, like every other 
part of God's world it was full of strength and power. 
Iron by the million tons was scattered all through its 
rough rocks, and it was only waiting for the man who 
should understand and apply God's conditions of 
extracting it. 

I have dwelt somewhat at length upon this side of 
our subject, because I believe that what we call the 
natural and supernatural are but the two sides of 
the same shield. 

That God gives strength and power in a physical 
and material way to those who conform to certain 
conditions, is the blazing and much talked about 
truth of this age. That he gives strength in a spir- 
itual way is just as certain, though it may not be so 
generally acknowledged ; and yet it is coming to be 
more generally talked about than it was. A new 
interest is springing up on all sides in this subject of 
spiritual power. It is not always talked about in 
the old-time religious terms. It sometimes takes on 
a dress of language which quite disguises the old 
truth from Christian eyes, and yet whatever there is 
of truth about it is the old truth. 

Theosophy, Christian Science, and even Mental 
Science, are all based on the fundamental fact that 
the Father of spirits touches and inspires and ener- 



24 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

gizes man's spirit, and gives him a certain control 
over spiritual things. 

The rapid spread of these various schools of 
thought and belief is a part of the evidence that 
a mighty reaction is setting in against the gross 
materialism of the former part of the century, and a 
more pronounced type of this evidence is the deepen- 
ing interest of the people in the spiritual writings 
of such men as F. B. Meyer and Andrew Murray 
and other representatives of the so-called Keswick 
school. 

I have sometimes thought that the very things 
which some have most dreaded, these scientific dis- 
coveries, and this phenomenal advance in material 
prosperity, have prepared the race for a spiritual 
advance. God has given man so much in a material 
way for the asking, he has astonished us so fre- 
quently by his lavish impartations of power over 
material things, that we almost unconsciously say to 
ourselves, " Why not expect great things of him in a 
spiritual way ? '' And so I do not see in our present 
absorption in the scientific triumphs of the age 
that tendency to a fatal materialism which some 
seem to find there, but rather a preparation for 
what I sincerely believe to be near at hand, — a 
great spiritual revival in which the manifestations of 
the power of the Holy Ghost will be as much grander 
and more comprehensive than anything heretofore 



FOR POWER. 25 

witnessed, as the material development of this age 
is superior to that of any past age. 

God is just as willing to give spiritual power as he 
is to give any other kind of power, and he will give 
it whenever his conditions are complied with. 

The Bible labors to impress this truth upon its 
readers. It represents God as more than willing to 
make every soul which he has created a mighty 
spiritual force in the world. Power, limitless 
power, like the iron in our hills, like the electricity 
in our earth and air, is only waiting for the man 
of faith. 

To appropriate the forces of nature and utilize 
them for humanity is a very blessed and wonderful 
thing to do, but it is not half as great or blessed 
as to be able to control the vast enginery of God's 
spiritual powers, and so to be workers together with 
him in the redemption of the world. 

To have the power to win men to Christ and make 
them holy is far better than to have the power 
merely to make them more comfortable in a physical 
way. 

To stand in the barren wastes of selfishness 
among the chaotic ruins of primeval sin, among 
prodigals and magdalens, of whom the world says, 
" It is no use ; there is not ore enough to pay for 
reduction," and to be able by the application of the 
mighty powers of God to make them vessels meet for 



26 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

his kingdom, is better, infinitely better, than to 
be able to reduce the Jersey mountains to the ap- 
pliances of commerce. 

" Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you.'^ This was the promise of the 
risen Christ to the little band of disciples who were 
going out to possess the world. The Holy Ghost 
came upon them, and they had power, — a strange 
new power which seemed to the world like madness, 
but which was the only power which could make 
a mad world sane, — the only power which could 
crush the stony heart of man, separate its ore from 
its dross, and fit it for heavenly uses. 

How wonderfully this power worked ! You know 
if you have read the world's history. You know how 
it has possessed and transformed men and nations, 
how it has made the humblest members of the race its 
mightiest spiritual conquerors ; how it has strength- 
ened men for toil and suffering and death ; how it has 
lifted men from shame to honor, from slavery to 
freedom, from the slums of sin to sainthood. You 
know how, through this power, all that is best and 
highest has come into being, and how, without this 
power. Christian religion would be but a lifeless 
philosophy in a lifeless world, a dead battery lying 
against a pulseless body. 

Our usual confession of faith declares, " We 
believe that all who experience faith in Christ are 



FOR POWER. 27 

renewed by the Holy Spirit, and by him sanctified 
and made partakers of eternal life." 

The power of the Holy Ghost does two things for 
a man. 

First, it changes his inner life and purpose. It 
transforms the dormant root into a growing, blossom- 
ing plant ; the dead, black carbon into an incandes- 
cent, throbbing coil. This is the old doctrine of 
regeneration, or, to use Christ's words, of being 
born again, and it is the central doctrine of our 
orthodox faith. Nothing can serve in its stead. 
Reformation, moral resolution, changed environment, 
are not, and cannot be, substituted for this deep, all- 
powerful, all-transforming grip of the Holy Ghost 
upon the heart of man. God, and God only, can 
save the soul. " Not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to his mercy 
he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost." The power that can 
create a world can recreate it. The power that 
can generate a world can regenerate it, and there is 
no other power outside of God that can do either. 
" The Holy Ghost," as some one has truly said, " can 
take a man dead in trespasses and sins and make 
him alive." Yes ; he can take a man by nature and 
by practice vile and corrupt, and so change him 
that he shall have God's nature, think God's 
thoughts, will what God wills, love what God loves. 



28 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

and hate what God hates. He is doing this every 
day. He is saving the chief of sinners, the wicked- 
est man in New York, and Boston, and London, and 
he is doing it just as easily as he is making growing 
trees out of the dead earth, or palpitating light out 
of the inert darkness which surrounds the dynamo. 
He is giving strength and power to souls dead in 
selfishness, so that they are able to rise up with 
commanding influence, and sometimes carry not 
only their families, but the whole community, over 
into the fields of aspiration and holy desire and 
faith. 

The other thing which the power of the Holy 
Ghost does for a man is to develop him, or, to use 
the old word, sanctify him. " From strength to 
strength " is the watchword of the spiritual as well as 
of the material world. No inventor stops with his 
first crude discovery. The telephone of to-day is a 
vast improvement upon the instrument which first 
transmitted the human voice. The omnipotent 
power in the material world is forever working 
towards perfection, and so in the spiritual world we 
may have the fulness of that power just in propor- 
tion as we are willing and fitted to receive it ; and 
just here most of us are weak when we ought to be 
strong. I believe Mr. Torrey speaks the truth when 
he says: "To the extent that we understand and 
claim for ourselves the Holy Spirit's work, to that 



FOR POWER. 29 

extent do we obtain for ourselves the fulness of 
power in Christian life and service that God has 
provided for us in Christ. A very large portion of 
the church know and claim for themselves a very 
small part of that which God has made possible for 
them in Christ, because they know so little of what 
the Holy Spirit can do for us and longs to do for 
us." 

To the extent that we understand and claim for 
ourselves the Holy Spirit's work. These are two of 
the conditions of using the power and increasing it. 
There is iron all around us, mountains of it, the air 
is full of reducing forces, the trouble is that we do 
not make our shovels and crushers and magnets 
large enough. 

O ye of little faith, how large and strong, how 
rich, you might be, if you would only use what God 
has made ready for you ! You content yourself with 
a few pickings from the field, when you might have 
your cars loaded with treasure. You stop with a 
few flashes of the power, when you might have a 
steady increasing current, which would fill your 
whole life with light, and illumine the entire com- 
munity. You ask little, petty things of God, and 
hardly expect to receive them, when you might ask 
and receive great things. You play Christian. You 
go through the forms of religion like children play- 
ing with a toy telephone, when you might make a 



30 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

connection with men's souls, and speak to them 
words that would save them. You are worried and 
troubled about many things. You sing morbid 
hymns, and live at a poor dying rate. You mourn 
because you are doing so little for Christ. You 
think that you have no jewels in your crown, that 
your spring of salvation is getting stagnant, that the 
world, the flesh, and the devil are too active and 
too assertive for you, that the world is going to the 
bad, when all the while you are a child of him who 
made the world, and a joint heir with Christ to the 
power that is to save it. 

" Why should the children of a King 
Go mourning all their days ? 
Great Comforter, descend and bring 
Some tokens of thy grace. 

Dost thou not dwell in all thy saints, 
And seal them heirs of heaven? 

When wilt thou banish our complaints 
And show our sins forgiven ? " 

I would be glad enough to remove the veil of 
unreality which is so often drawn around this spirit- 
ual side of our truth, and bring you face to face with 
it as you stand face to face and fully convinced be- 
fore the material side of it. If I could do this, I 
should confer a far greater blessing on you than 
I could possibly do by discovering for you God's 



FOR POWER. 31 

secret of extracting gold from sea-water, or trans- 
muting carbon into diamonds. 

Would that every Christian might know as he 
has never known before the secret of the Lord in 
this higher realm of his being ; that he might know 
more of that comfort and peace and liberty and joy 
which come from a consciousness of resting abso- 
lutely in the power of God. 

I hardly dare to tell you what I believe to be possi- 
ble to him who has been endued with this power from 
on high, for you might say it is mystical and vision- 
ary, and yet I go not beyond the language of Scrip- 
ture when I say, " All things are possible to him that 
believeth." " Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall 
be done unto you." " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." " If ye have faith, and 
doubt not, ye shall say unto this mountain. Be 
thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and 
it shall be done." These are the promises which 
stagger the thing which we call our faith, but they 
have back of them the power which controls all 
forces and all treasures, — a power which is giving 
to scientific faith about everything which it asks 
in the physical world, even the control of the 
thunderbolt, and the removal of mountains, and 
which I am quite sure will open to the coming 
generations a world of spiritual wonders which 



32 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

doth not yet appear to our dull eyes. A few 
here and there anticipate the coming conquests of 
faith even in this generation ; a few like Miiller 
are proving the promises here and now ; a few in 
humbler walks of life are mighty spiritual powers. 
May God increase that number and bring on the 
promised day of Israel. 



PART IL 
FOR CHARACTER 



THE SON INCARNATE. 

" And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." 

"'T^HIS is the true belief in Christ. It regards 
A him as an ever-flowing fountain of spiritual 
and moral life, divine, because the image of the un- 
seen God ; divine, because bringing God to us and 
us to him. It makes him the ever-living, ever- 
present, head of the church, the human brother as 
well as the celestial Master. It gives our hearts the 
dearest object of love. ... It supplies us with a 
friendship which earth cannot give nor take away. 
In this view of Christ is progress, growth, sincerity, 
union, and peace. This is the Master and Friend 
whom we need; who says to us always, ^ Abide in 
me and I in you.' " 

" O Lord and Master of us all, 
Whatever our name or sign, 
We own thy sway, we hear thy call. 
We test our lives by thine." 



34 




FOR CHARACTER. 

Christ in you the hope of glory. — Col. i : 27. 

BECAME deeply interested some time 
ago in a sketch of the life of Carlo An- 
tonio Pensenti, an untutored monk who 
lived in Genoa, and whose name has 
become immortal because of a single work of art 
which he executed under remarkable circumstances. 
In the city of Genoa was an immense block of 
ivory which had excited the wonder of the people 
there for many years. While Pensenti was looking 
at it one day, the thought took possession of him 
that it was his duty to carve from it a figure of the 
Saviour on the cross. A strange thought for a man 
who knew little or nothing of the sculptor's art, and 
one which would have drawn much ridicule from 
the monk's friends, had they known of it. But he 
managed to secure the precious piece of ivory, 
and in the quiet of his cell, with prayer and 
wonderful patience, he worked over it for many 
months. 

The Saviour to whom he had devoted his life 

35 



36 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

seemed ever before him. For him to live was 
Christ. The vision of the Crucified filled and in- 
spired his soul, and, flowing out, as it were, through 
his unpractised fingers, materialized itself in the 
pure white ivory before him. At the end of four 
years the image was finished, and it was pronounced 
a " work w^orthy of the great sculptors of ancient 
Greece, or the old Italian masters, possessing the 
same characteristics as their most celebrated pro- 
ductions, — exquisite beauty combined with perfect 
accuracy and purity of style.'^ 

The figure was purchased by the American consul 
at Genoa, and carried to Florence, where it was 
criticised and admired by Mr. Powers and other 
celebrated artists. It was afterwards exhibited in 
London, where the first artists and anatomists pro- 
nounced it a masterpiece of anatomical accuracy, 
and manly beauty, and divine expression ; and, in 
course of time, it found its way to this country, and 
became a permanent adornment in a great metro- 
politan cathedral. 

When these facts came to my knowledge, there 
came to my mind the words which I have chosen 
for my text, *^ Christ in you the hope of glory," and 
the words seem to me to take on a new meaning in 
the light of this incident. Here was a man unac- 
quainted with the technicalities of art, yet so filled 
with the image of Christ, so moved by his religious 



FOR CHARACTER. 37 

feeling, that he was enabled to work out for himself 
even an earthly glory which hardly pales before that 
of the great masters. 

Surely this suggests the truth that Christ in us is 
not only the hope or guaranty of the heavenly glory, 
but he is also our surety of the highest success here 
in this life. In other words, the religious element 
is essential to the highest type of human glory here 
and hereafter. 

" Glory," as here used by the apostle, means mag- 
nificent completeness, radiant fulfilment, blessed 
fruition. 

It differs according to the thing to which it relates. 
There is one glory of the sun, and another of the 
moon, and another glory of the stars. There is one 
glory of the trees, and another glory of the flowers, 
and another glory of the grass. 

Everything has its possible glory stage, its time 
when it is at its best. The sun is in its glory when 
its own luminous atmosphere is least convulsed by 
darkening tempests. The moon is in her glory 
when, full-orbed, she lifts her head above the hori- 
zon and floods the earth with her silver splendor. 
The trees and flowers are in their glory when the 
conditions of their growth are such as to bring them 
to their completest stature and beauty. In each 
case, the hope, or assurance, of their glory depends 
chiefly upon certain conditions within themselves, — 



38 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

a spirit, as it were, within, shaping things to a certain 
end, working towards fulfilment. 

And so, passing over into the human realm of 
human affairs, everything has its glory goal, its 
^' consummation devoutly to be wished." 

There is one glory of art and another of science ; 
one glory of poetry, another of statecraft ; and it 
could easily be shown how Christ is in each of these 
the source of their highest perfection. 

Take the realm of art. From the time when 
Bezaleel, the son of Uri, was filled with the spirit 
of God to devise curious works in gold and silver 
and brass, most of the greatest sculptures and paint- 
ings have been those associated with, or expressing, 
the religious sentiments. Angelico, we are told, 
never began any work, whether an elaborate fresco 
or an illumination for a missal, without praying, and 
he always carried out the first impression, believing 
it to be an inspiration ; and it was this spirit of rapt 
religious devotion which gave birth to the few tran- 
scendent masterpieces which occupy the highest 
places in the galleries of genius. 

The same is true of music. There is an old 
legend that the practice of antiphones was intro- 
duced through St. Ignatius, who had heard the 
angels singing psalms in alternate strains before the 
throne of God. However this may be, everybody 
recognizes in the sacred music of the great com- 



FOR CHARACTER. 39 

posers " a glory which excelleth." Its theme is 
Christ. It Ufts us above the rasping cares of Hfe, 
and makes us feel that harps of gold and angelic 
choirs are no vain imagination. One must be con- 
vinced, when Handel's " gorgeous music peals upon 
the amazed ear," that the great master had listened 
to the music of the spheres, and that when in his 
solitude his fingers swept over the keys, something 
of that holy influence encircled him, which a great 
artist once symbolized under the guise of the angels 
who guard St. Cecilia. 

And then there is science, the princes of which, 
^^ on whose brow the ivy is still green, have not been 
slow to lift an anthem of praise to God." As we 
read their biographies we are impressed with their 
reverence for God. They found him in all his 
works. We hear Galileo, athrill with the inspiration 
of true science, saying aloud, " Sun, moon, and stars 
praise him." We hear Kepler, overwhelmed with 
what he saw among the swinging constellations, say- 
ing : " God has passed before me in the grandeur of 
his ways ! Glorify him, ye stars, and thou, my soul, 
praise him ! " They saw in every law the hand of 
God, in every discovery a new revelation of his 
wisdom and power. 

But that phase of our truth which will most interest 
us is the personal one. Paul is speaking directly to 
the Colossians. " Christ in you," he says. These 



40 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

Other facts which we have been considering depend 
upon this personal fact. The Christ in the heart 
brings glory to the individual, and, through the in- 
dividual, to art, science, literature, — to civilization. 
Now all this is but saying that to be a Christian is 
but fulfilling the highest end of our being. But I 
am aware that much misunderstanding beclouds this 
Pauline doctrine of Christ in us. The apostle has 
a great deal to say about it. He says in one place, 
" To me to live is Christ," and in another, " I live, 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," as though his 
whole being had been adjusted and vitalized by 
some new and powerful life, which is actually the 
case when Christ comes into the heart. He brings 
with him a new life-plan and motive power, through 
which the highest possibilities of manhood and 
womanhood are achieved. It is a part of the econ- 
omy of things that spirit shall have power over spirit, 
that soul shall work in soul. Some other than our- 
selves is working in and through each of us to-day. 
We are consciously or unconsciously moved by those 
about us. In a certain sense it may be said to many 
here to-day : " You are in your friend the hope of 
glory. You are making him to be what he could 
never be without you." Sometimes one person 
dwells in another through the power of love. In 
this sense the pure and beautiful Beatrice was in 
Dante the hope of his glory. Meeting her when 



FOR CHARACTER. 4 1 

she was but nine years old, he came under the 
wondrous spell of her influence. Though he saw 
but little of her during her lifetime, she grew in his 
mind and imagination to be the embodiment of 
divine truth itself. She was his Lady Beautiful, his 
inspiration, his guiding star. Her image within 
him stirred all the poetic emotions of his great soul, 
kindled his mighty genius, and resulted in that im- 
mortal tribute to woman, the Divine Comedy. Had 
it not been for Beatrice, Dante's fame might have 
been shorn of half of its glory. 

Sometimes one person dwells in another through 
the power of instruction. In this sense Aristotle 
was in Alexander the Great the hope of his glory. 
Alexander himself confesses this. He admits that 
the education which he received at the hands of the 
great philosopher shaped his destiny, and secured 
for him the conquests of after-years. Aristotle's 
power in disciplining the judgment was great. He 
instilled into his pupil's mind the principles which 
helped him to make far-reaching plans and to exe- 
cute them wisely. His teachings went with the 
conqueror everywhere. 

Sometimes it happens that one person dwells in 
another and becomes to him the hope of his glory in 
both of these senses. Love and instruction work 
together. The life of John Wesley is familiar to 
you. You remember how his mother was in him in 



42 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

this double sense the hope of his glory. A poor 
ignorant ignoramus, the world called him, when he 
was a boy. No common ambition was his, much 
less a spark of genius. Sleepy, unaspiring, with 
apparently but one redeeming feature, — an intense 
love for his mother. Ah, yes ! and in that love was 
the surety of his future greatness. She, though a 
humble woman, was a great woman. She conceived 
the idea which has since developed into the greatest 
ecclesiastic system of modern times. She spurred 
John Wesley on to great achievement. She was his 
beloved friend and teacher. His love for her moved 
him to receive her teaching, and thus she was in him 
constantly directing his life to its goal. 

This thing is of frequent occurrence. Many a 
mother is in her son his hope of honesty and purity. 
He goes away from her into the great city, and yet 
not away from her, for she is with him, in him, still. 
Her image is before his eyes, her instructions in his 
memory. He is tempted, evil forces conspire to rob 
him of his manhood. He comes near falling, but 
the mother-face and the mother-voice interpose. He 
says, " I will not do this thing, for her sake," and so 
is saved. 

The question frequently comes, What is it to be 
a Christian ? It is a pity that the difference is not 
more easily detected than it sometimes is, for a life 
which has Christ in it ought to reveal something of 



FOR CHARACTER. 43 

the glory which belongs to it. The firefly shines be- 
cause it has within it that which must shine. Put 
him with a host of other insects in the dark, and his 
flight alone will be traced by its pulsations of light. 
Imprison him in your hand, and he will illumine his 
little dungeon with his unquenched flame. Let a 
man really take Christ into his heart, and the Christ 
glory must inevitably appear in his life. Of course 
it will. And why ? Because God who made the soul 
knows what the soul needs to bring it to its best 
estate. Left to itself, it comes short of its glory. 
Sin is an ugly fact. Man under the power of evil 
goes down to shame. He needs for his betterment, 
for his salvation, just such a personality in his life 
as that of Jesus Christ. As Beatrice inspired Dante, 
as Aristotle inspired Alexander, as the mother in- 
spires her son, so, in a higher, holier sense, did Jesus 
inspire John and Peter and Paul. So he ought to 
inspire his disciples to-day. I care not into what 
department of life you carry your explorations. I 
care not in what your block of unhewn ivory may 
consist, it shall bring you the highest glory only 
when you carve upon it the form and features of 
the perfect One. 

Perhaps that unhewn block lies before you this 
morning in the form of educational aspirations. 
You are striving after culture. Now culture, unless 
it be crowned and interfused with religion, is but a 



44 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

soulless, mechanical statue. You may perfect and 
polish it, you may spend months and years upon its 
details, but still it will lack that indescribable some- 
thing which alone can give it a place in the niche 
of the immortals. Great scholars there are who 
never acknowledge their allegiance to Jesus Christ. 
Cultured men, so called, there are, all about us, who 
condemn the Bible to the limbo of myths and fables ; 
and yet the fact still stands that the scholar who 
tries to ignore Christ, or to read God out of history 
and science, is very much like that writer who is try- 
ing to prove that there was no Shakespeare. The 
plain, common-sense man cannot help feeling that 
there is something lacking in such a scholar's mental 
make-up, — a little daft, as the Scotch say. The full- 
rounded scholar is he whose higher religious nature 
has expanded with his lower intellectual nature, so 
that all the material facts which are gathered into 
the one find their spiritual reflection in the other. 
How it enlarges, how it glorifies, a man, to be able to 
interpret all his knowledge in the light of a religious 
faith ! Such a man is lifted above the level of earth. 
His brow is aflame with the glory of the Beulah 
heights. Well says Professor Shairp, in his little 
book on " Culture and Religion," which, by the 
way, I wish you all might read : — 

" There is no more forlorn sight than that of 
a man of highly gifted, elaborately cultivated in- 



FOR CHARACTER. 45 

tellect, with all the other capacities of his nature 
strong and active, but those of faith and reverence 
dormant." 

And perhaps your unhewn block of ivory is made 
up of business hopes and plans. You stand before 
it and say : " Ah ! I shall make something fine out of 
this. I will hew me out a success which will make 
men wonder." And so you acquaint yourselves 
with the maxims of trade ; but even here there is 
no real glory for you except the Christ himself is 
breathed from your daily life into your work. Other- 
wise your ivory will take on under your hands the 
pinched and careworn features of that miserly god, 
Mammon. 

That is a sad state of mind into which some men 
get when they mistake the glory of material success 
for the glory of character ; when they think the 
public is admiring them, while it is only wondering 
at their crowded warerooms and overflowing tills. 
I know that men will tell you that strict integrity 
and stanch virtue are impossible things in the 
busy world of industry and commerce, that character 
largely flavored with piety is at a discount, that he 
who would succeed must throw away his conscience. 
Better fail if this be so, for a conscience thrown away 
is sure to come back again, and with a sting in it. 
But is it true that there can be no Christ in bus- 
iness ? Has it come to this, that he whose indwell- 



46 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

ing spirit has brought the world up to its present 
stage of civilization, whose principles have changed 
the thievishness of the savage into Christian com- 
merce, can no longer have a place in the realm 
which he has purified and glorified? Since the 
mists of night are scattered and you have come out 
into the day where the grass revels and the flowers 
open their bright eyes in the sunlight, will you dis- 
pense with the sun ? Will you push it back below 
the horizon ? That is what they would do who tell 
you that the gospel is not for business. 

Grant that it is hard to live honestly, to show the 
spirit of Christ in the rough jostlings of business 
life. Herein is the glory of such characters as those 
of Buxton and Dodge. Their Christian principles 
carried them over the difficulties. Says Edmund 
Burke : '' One source of greatness is difficulty. 
When any work seems to have required immense 
force and labor to effect it, the idea is grand. The 
Druid circle in Keswick, England, has no ornament 
about it, but those huge masses of stone set on end 
turn the mind on the immense force necessary for 
such a work." And just so I think we are impressed 
by the rugged characters which we find standing 
stanch and firm in their Christian integrity in the 
business circle. We think of the force within, and 
through their lives Christ seems to us doubly 
glorious. 



FOR CHARACTER. A^J 

But I turn to another application of our text. 
The glory of human life is to be blessed here and 
for evermore. We all seek happiness. We try to 
find it now in this thing, and now in that. We 
chase with butterfly carelessness the fleeting joy of 
the moment, or with philosophic forethought we 
plan for the joys of .the future. Now I am quite 
sure that he who takes Christ into his life gets the 
most real enjoyment now, and the promise of the 
greatest blessedness hereafter. 

Take, the present life, for example. Put Christ 
anywhere but at the centre of your being, put your 
will against his will, and the whole life is out of 
gear. It rattles, and jolts, and meanders, like a 
derailed car. Christ knew about this kind of moral 
and spiritual derailment, and out of his infinite pity 
came the invitation, " Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
As though he had said : " Your unrest and dis- 
couragement are the result of your being far from 
me. Take me into your heart, and I shall become 
your spring of blessedness, your hope of glorious 
peace." 

Temptation takes a great deal from a man's best 
achievement. More than anything else it robs him 
of his joy, and blurs the glory of his old age. I 
think of the temptations which with unseen fingers 
are tarnishing some of our lives or picking away the 



48 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

graces from our characters as those Mexicans about 
whom Mr. Miller writes picked away the rubies and 
emeralds from the prostrate idol on the uplands. I 
think how these temptations vary in form and in- 
tensity, coming to Joseph and David and Peter in 
just the way they least expect them to come, but 
always coming where the link in the virtues is weak- 
est, and the possibilities of shame and remorse are 
greatest. 

Then, too, there are sorrows which seem to rob us 
of half the glory of this present life. I think of the 
trials which have come to many, changing the bright- 
ness of the noontime into the gloom of midnight. 
I think of plans frustrated, hopes crushed. Yes, I 
think of these temptations and these trials, and 
then I think of two promises : one to the tempted 
man, '^ My grace is sufficient for thee," and one 
to the mourner, " Thy sorrow shall be turned into 
joy." 

I cannot tell you how Christ in the heart fulfils 
these promises ; I only know that he does. As Dr. 
William Taylor once beautifully said : " Two persons 
may sit side by side in the sanctuary, parent and 
child, wife and husband, friends, partners, or neigh- 
bors. The one enjoys this indwelling Christ ; to the 
other it is but a dream. The one sees not Christ 
in anything ; the other sees him in song and sacra- 
ment, in labor and sacrifice, in pain and pleasure. 



FOR CHARACTER, 49 

Indeed, you must extract his very consciousness from 
him before you can rob him of this experience. 
These two persons are different, and they will be 
different eternally unless the grace which has trans- 
formed the one shall renew the other." 

And all this leads on to thoughts of the life to 
come, — the thought which was doubtless in Paul's 
mind when he wrote to the Colossians. 

The glory of the soul hereafter will depend not 
upon its environment, but upon that spirit which is 
within it. 

The glory of the lily is latent in the bulb. The 
life of heaven is earth's consummate blossom. As 
we are here in heart, we shall be there in life and 
action. The grandeur and beauty of the full-blown 
life of an immortal soul none can know save the 
angels who dwell in the supernal gardens. 

When these faculties have been touched and 
vitalized by the Christ within there should be no 
limit to their growth. " Beloved, now are we sons 
of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be." 

O, the inspiration of this thought ! How it ought 
to move us to high endeavor ! 

How mean and unworthy all selfish living seems 
when we stand in the Ught which streams upon us 
from the yet unattained heights of our Christian 
manhood and womanhood ! 

Let us walk in this light. Let us make Christ a 



50 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

power within. Let us show forth his spirit. Let 
us give up the sins which hold us back from the full 
fruition of our hope of glory, and let us be able to 
say with the apostle, " I live, yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me/' 



PART III. 

FOR SERVICE 



THE SPIRIT OPERATIVE. 

" But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every 
man severally as he will." 



T 



HE Holy Spirit is not a freak of the divine 



fested in power, in proportion as God is manifested 
in character and in hfe." 

" We want to get possession of the power and use 
it. God wants the power to get possession of us and 
use us. If we give ourselves to the power to rule in 
us, the power will give itself to us to rule through 
us." 

*' 'Tis God the Spirit leads 
In paths before unknown ; 
The work to be performed is ours, 
The strength is all his own." 



52 



FOR SERVICE. 




And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which 
worketh all in all. — i Cor. 12 : 6. 

MASSING over a Massachusetts road some 
time ago, I was struck with the marvel- 
lous coloring of the autumn leaves. The 
woods were aflame with crimson banners, 
and the green and the gold vied with each other in 
their multitudinous shades. The hills looked as 
though a thousand Turners had been splashing the 
remnants from their easels over them, and in the 
maze and whirl of color one could almost imagine 
that he saw startling pictures. As I looked upon 
this gorgeous tapestry of the hills I remembered 
that, only a few weeks before, these crimsons and 
gold and browns were all a vivid green, and that a 
few weeks earlier they were a pale tender hue, like 
that of buds just waking into life. How quickly the 
hues had come and gone ! How, in the ceaseless 
moving of the months, the same spirit of life work- 
ing within had appeared now in this shade, and now 
in that, until at last it had burst out in this wild riot 
of color. Divers operations, but the same spirit. 

53 



54 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

This is the law of divine action in nature and in the 
human soul. Whether we take humanity as a whole 
or in part, we find this law working itself out in 
infinite variety. Paul, in the twelfth chapter of first 
Corinthians, is illustrating this fact. 

If you have really been touched and vitalized by 
the divine Spirit, he says, this Spirit will be mani- 
fested in and through you in different ways ; but it is 
the same Spirit, whether it appears in the flaming 
red of Peter's character, the mellow gold of John's, 
or the less pronounced colors of the character of the 
other disciples. 

The first thing to be noticed is that there is such 
a person as the Holy Ghost, and that he is none 
other than God himself, working in man. Paul is 
very explicit on this point. " I give you to under- 
stand," he says, " that no man speaking by the Spirit 
of God calleth Jesus accursed." The Jews claimed 
to be of God v/hen they were persecuting and cruci- 
fying Christ. This could not be. Like detects like, 
spirit answers to spirit, as face to face in water. God 
in the heart could not revile the Son of God on the 
cross. The divine Spirit within can but recognize 
the Christ without. Many a man, thinking himself 
a Christian, and assuming to criticise or condemn 
the professions of others, has been wofully mistaken 
as to his own faith. 

*' No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by 



FOR SERVICE. , 55 

the Holy Ghost." The divinity and spiritual head- 
ship of Jesus Christ come to man as a special revela- 
tion from God himself. The pure in heart shall see 
God. The Holy Spirit in the heart convinces us of 
the divine character of Christ as no miracles or argu- 
ments can convince us. He flashes this divinity 
upon us as he did upon Peter, when, amazed and 
humbled, that disciple exclaimed, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God ! " or as he did 
upon Thomas, when, with hesitant finger upon the 
nail-prints, he exclaimed, " My Lord and my God ! " 
No person or church can monopolize the Holy 
Spirit. He comes to all who desire him. An 
earthly father is not more willing to give good gifts 
to his children than is God to give the Holy Spirit 
to them that ask him. The man or sect that pre- 
sumes to an exclusive appropriation of the Spirit, 
and denies him to those who happen to hold a dif- 
ferent opinion, or who differ from them in creed or 
practice, is doing just what Paul is rebuking the 
Corinthians for doing, in this chapter from which 
our text is taken. There were certain persons in 
the Corinthian church who were very proud of their 
spiritual gifts, and had a great deal to say about 
them. For this reason Paul felt called upon to 
warn the church against being misled by these 
ambitious and vainglorious men. Do not, he says, 
in substance, make the mistake of thinking that the 



56 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

Holy Ghost manifests himself only in showy ways, 
or in pretentious sanctities. He is the direct in- 
spirer of varied ministrations, and is often most 
forceful in unpretentious service. 

" To one is given by the Spirit the word of wis- 
dom." Such a one is not able to talk much about 
his religion ; he is a man of few words, but his words 
weigh much. Five minutes with him are worth an 
hour with some other men. His brain is made to 
distil truth, not to dilute it ; and when the power of 
the Spirit is upon him, he is one of the most helpful 
counsellors in Corinth. 

"To another is given the word of knowledge." 
He is not born wise like the other man. He gets 
knowledge by hard work. His brain is a net which 
gathers fish from all seas, a repository of facts. He 
is not especially popular or practical. Like Gama- 
liel, he has no crowd at his feet ; but serious people, 
like Paul, sit there, and when the power is upon him, 
he stimulates men's intellect and strengthens their 
souls. 

"To another, faith." Quiet, retiring, yet pos- 
sessed of a strongly magnetic and inspiring person- 
ality, this man stands in the community as the 
daysman between multitudes of Littlefaiths and the 
Lord. Men absorbed in worldliness lean upon him 
and believe in him, and all Corinth gets a glimpse 
of heaven through his upper window. God makes 



FOR SERVICE. 57 

his faith a ladder upon which men climb up out of 
their Sloughs of Despond to ground where he gives 
them a ladder of their own. 

" To another, the gift of healing/' Some say this 
was a temporary manifestation of the Spirit, which, 
like the gift of miracles, was to vanish with the 
early disciples. Others contend that it is as com- 
mon in Boston to-day as it was in Corinth, and as 
much a privilege of the believer as wisdom, knowl- 
edge, and faith. Sure it is, the power of spirit over 
matter, the tendency of thought to quell certain 
physical disturbances and conquer pain, and the 
influence of prayer and a quiet trust in God over 
many bodily ills, all belong to the acknowledged 
therapeutics of these modern times ; and he who 
believes that it is the province of the divine Spirit 
in man to make him not only holy, but whole, 
according to John's desire for Gains, may be nearer 
right than some of us think. " Beloved, I wish 
above all things that thou mayest prosper and be 
in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 

" To another, prophecy." The gift of vision. A 
John, at Patmos, with the world's future swinging 
in dazzling cyclorama around him. The man and 
the woman of these latter days who are so full of 
the divine Spirit that they see and foresee events 
something as Christ did ; who stand out in the com- 
munity and in the church as fearless denouncers of 



58 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

social and political corruption and mighty apostles 
of righteousness ; who with eye ablaze with the light 
of the New Jerusalem, and ear resonant with millen- 
nial music, utter their oracles of rebuke or cheer, 
and with divine eagerness, not unmixed with human 
impatience, strive to bring on the day when the 
golden anticipations of the ages shall be fully real- 
ized, and the Christ shall be crowned Lord of all. 

" To another, discerning of spirits." A Peter who 
can look through and through a man, and detect the 
hypocrisy and imposition which are lurking in him, 
as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. An Elisha 
who is able to see in the heart of the young Hazael 
a future of selfishness, murder, carnage, and devas- 
tation. The seer whom you will find in almost every 
band of disciples, whose spiritual insight is so keen 
that he can look into the souls and characters of 
men, detect their virtues and their vices, and lay 
them as bare as were the muscles of the flayed 
Marsyas. 

"To another, divers kinds of tongues; and to 
another, the interpretation of tongues." The glottis 
gift, the power of the orator who sways men's minds 
and controls their wills. The power of the man who 
is master of men's thoughts and emotions, whose 
magnetic personality gives him free range through 
the hearts of men of every nation and tribe and 
tongue. 



FOR SERVICE, 59 

"All these worketh that one and the selfsame 
Spirit, dividing to every man as he will." In other 
words, God can use every kind of talent ; and 
when he takes full possession of a man, he uses 
that man most efficiently along the line of his bent. 
He takes him just as he finds him, with the ten- 
dencies and powers which he first implanted within 
him, and develops him, just as he takes a bed of 
bulbs and tubers in the springtime, pours his sun- 
shine and rain over them, and brings to their glory, 
here a tulip and there a hyacinth, and, later on, a 
dahlia, a lily, or a clematis, each beautiful in its time. 
This coming to full-blown tuliphood or lilyhood is the 
working of the same spirit of life. For a tulip bulb 
to say : " I, and I only, have in me this life power. 
We tulips have a monoply of it. If you want to 
get it, you must be like us, with a smooth, glossy ex- 
terior, and a straight, stiff stem, with one, and only 
one, blossom at the end. You hyacinths, with your 
gay, scented bells, and you dahlias, with your many 
tuberous roots and multiplied* branches, reaching 
out in all directions, and blossoming high and low 
on all sides of yourselves, you make a great mistake 
in thinking that you have this life spirit," — for a 
tulip to say this would be like what some good peo- 
ple are saying about other people, who believe in 
Young Men's Christian Associations and Chris- 
tian Endeavor societies and institutional churches. 



6o THE INDWELLING GOD. 

" You have too many roots and branches," they say. 
" You blossom out on too many sides of Hfe to be a 
channel for the Spirit. You are too secular to be 
saintly. Come out from the world. Be separate 
from it. Seek the things that are above. Be sin- 
gular, stiff, and blossom tulipwise, and then we will 
grant that you have the gift of the Spirit." 

The mere possession of the Spirit is not enough. 
Power is good for nothing until it is applied and 
becomes operative. The spirituality that shuts its 
eyes, and sways to and fro, and talks pessimistically, 
and does little else but talk, may be of the genuine 
sort; but a more effective kind is that which our 
Saviour declared to be the one condition of disciple- 
ship, — many-sided ministration in his name. " In- 
asmuch as ye did it unto the least of these." Here 
we have the application of the Spirit's power, — not 
merely the possession of something, but the doing 
of something very practical, and very secular, be- 
cause of that possession ; the Spirit in us ; Christ 
in us working out into tangible, helpful, every-day 
service. 

This is the same truth that we have in our text 
and context, — divers operations, varied manifesta- 
tions. The Holy Ghost within us, impelling us to 
visit the sick, comfort the afflicted, welcome the 
stranger, care for the poor, is just as truly the Holy 
Ghost as he is when he helps us to pray and wor- 



FOR SERVICE. 6 1 

ship. He is just as real a presence in our lives 
when he helps us to control our tongues as when he 
helps us to use them. A silence which is full of 
the unpretentious deeds of love has far more spiritu- 
ality in it, more of the Holy Ghost, than the most 
religious speech unaccompanied with the minister- 
ing hand. Prophesying and the gift of tongues are 
for the few. They are rare gifts ; they are useful 
gifts. Blessed is he who by tongue or pen can 
move men to better lives. But the gift which our 
Lord speaks of when he talks about the man in 
prison, the stranger, the hungry, the naked, and the 
sick ; the gifts of which he speaks in his Sermon on 
the Mount, and in his other discourses upon his 
new commandment, — the gift of loving our ene- 
mies, letting our light shine, bearing good fruit, 
improving our talents, forgiving one another, sup- 
pressing revenge, and refraining from slander, — 
these are the common gifts which all can have 
for the asking; which all, indeed, must have, 
or the inference will be that they have not the 
Spirit. 

The true test of the Spirit's presence is the mani- 
festation which he makes of himself. The man who 
claims to have a power, and fails to use it, will not 
be believed. Application, action, results, — these 
are the proofs of power. If you have spiritual 
power, we shall all find it out. You may not make 



62 THE INDWELLING GOB. 

a show of it, but we shall discover it. You will find 
your place and fill it. The Holy Ghost does not 
need your position or your trade for his channel. 
He needs you. When he has possessed you, and 
filled you, and kindled the faculty by which he 
intends to make you felt in the world, he will set 
you to work, wherever you are, to win the world to 
Christ. He will present the Saviour to men through 
you, by helping you to be Christlike. You may be 
a humble carpenter. That makes no difference. 
Apply your power. Show how the Holy Spirit can 
work through the carpenter. Be honest; be true. 
Saw your boards, and drive your nails with a hand 
athrill with the power of the Holy Ghost. Let all 
the wheels of your inner life — love, hope, patience, 
forbearance, joy, peace, mercy — move ceaselessly 
on under the impulse of this power, so that their 
hum shall be as suggestive of energy as that of the 
dynamo. You and the Holy Ghost can make any 
calling a great one. If the Spirit divine appeared 
as the mighty Jehovah, the Creator of all things, 
when he first made the w^orld, remember that he 
came in the low^y guise of a carpenter to remake it. 
The weak things has God chosen to confound the 
mighty, that no flesh should glory before him. No 
king by virtue of his kinghood can say, " I have 
done this great thing." God can do just as great 
and greater things through the king's servant. 



FOR SERVICE. 63 

Joseph was greater than Pharaoh. Luther, the 
despised monk, was greater than the Pope. The 
Atlas bearers of the world have made their muscle at 
obscure forges. The pauper with a righteous cause 
is often greater than a prince with a kingdom, " that 
no flesh may glory." 

John Brown, of Haddington, was once visited by 
a young man of a very excitable temperament, and 
was told by him that he wanted to preach the gos- 
pel. The shrewd pastor saw that the young man's 
zeal was greater than his knowledge, and that his 
conceit was greater than either, and so he advised 
him to stay where he was. " But,'' said the young 
man, "I want to preach, and glorify God." The 
old commentator replied : ^' My young friend, a man 
may glorify God making brooms. Stick to your trade, 
and glorify God by your life and conversation." 

Then comes the thought that we are a part of 
"one stupendous whole." Your prophesying, and 
that other man's discerning, and that other's faith, 
are interlinked, and mutually supporting members 
of one body. Your work, and my work, and our 
brother's w^ork go together, as the hand, the arm, 
and the eye, and together we can strike a vigorous 
blow. 

This is very comforting to discouraged workers, 
and to those who have come to think that they 
have no great power spiritually. You stand in your 



64 THE INDWELLING GOD. 

place and toil on, wondering why, if you really have 
the power of the Spirit, you do not make more 
impression on the world, and see more results. 
Men seem so busy and unresponsive, and to care 
so little for what you say. You put your heart into 
your work, and think you are doing it with Christ's 
approval, and yet the world does not seem to notice 
it. In fact, you have about concluded that the more 
unselfish your work is, the more men will call you a 
fool, or an enthusiast. You almost begin to doubt, 
and you say to yourself, " Does it pay, after all ? '' 
A finger plunged for an instant into the ocean, and 
then withdrawn, a yellow leaf kissing the granite 
bowlder and falling to decay, a rain-drop brushing a 
rose petal and mingling with the earth, — each, you 
think, leaves about as much impression behind as 
you will leave when your life-work is done, and the 
funeral tears are shed. 

Failure seems to face you. Friends drop off one 
by one. You are getting old, and the world is ever 
young; you are getting serious, and the world is 
gay. What is the use ? 

Mrs. Browning tries to comfort you a bit : — 

*' Though we fail indeed, 
You, I, a score of such weak workers, He 
Fails never. If he cannot work by us, 
He will work over us. Does he want a man, 
Much less a woman, think you ? Every time 



FOR SERVICE, 65 

The star winks there, so many souls are born 
Who shall work, too. Let our own be calm. 
We should be ashamed to sit beneath those stars, 
Impatient that we 're nothing." 

To my mind it is cold comfort to think that God 
does not want a man or a woman to work with ; that 
he could do without us just as well, — cold as the 
starlight under which Mrs. Browning would have us 
sit in silence. I find better comfort in our text and 
context, "Members of one body," the less comely 
parts honored even more than the comely ones; 
something for each to do, and no thought of being 
left out alone, pining under the unsympathetic stars. 
God can work by us, and with him in us we cannot 
fail. Our work will last. It is as imperishable as 
the walls of heaven. It is a part of those walls. 

Yes, he fails never, and because we work with 
him we cannot fail. What we do becomes a part 
of his glory. Our toil and sacrifice and suffering 
are the medium of his power, the channel of his 
energy. Our tears make his rainbows. I saw a 
rainbow last week, magnificent, full-arched, and bril- 
liant. There it lay off in the east, expanding from 
the dark bosom of the storm its seven-colored petals, 
a gorgeous blossom of the skies called into being 
by the westering sun. But how many rain-drops it 
took to make that rainbow, falling, ever falling, in 
countless numbers ! And how brief was the bril- 



66 THE INDWELLING GOD, 

liance of each falling drop, and how many bows 
such a drop helped to make on its journey earth- 
ward, one for every angle of vision ! How full was 
that dark cloud and that falling shower of rainbows, 
rainbows which I could not see, which no one saw ! 
And how these rain-drops, after touching the earth 
for awhile, would in time get back again into the 
skies and help to make other rainbows, and so on 
throughout the ceaseless circle, till the sun shall set 
forever ! 

Your life, my brother, is a rain-drop reflecting 
the Sun that never sets. It shines out upon this 
beholder and that ; and when it gets below the angle 
of their vision, they call it ended, and others take 
your place in the swift passage through the pris- 
matic space. Even you do not see your own glory, 
and you get discouraged towards the end. But the 
end is only the beginning. Are they not all minis- 
tering spirits 1 Does not their work go on ? Others 
take their earth places, and make rainbows for 
earthly eyes ; but they, having fallen to the dust, 
have risen again a great cloud of witnesses, radiant 
in the upper skies, reflecting still the Sun of right- 
eousness, showing forth his glory, a part of the 
rainbow which encircles the throne of the eternal. 

THE END. 



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